End of day report or morning report?

Question

When it comes to delivering a report on the day's work, is it better to deliver the report at the end of the working day (e.g. 5pm) or first thing next morning (9am)? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

I would like to implement a morning report at work as I believe it would be more accurate (guarantee capture of all data e.g. people may work after-hours etc). However, I think people will be quite resistant to the change, so I need a bit more ammo.

The only counter I can think of off the top of my head is that there would be more "oomph" behind the feedback right after an end-of-day report.

I suppose another possible reason for an end-of-day report would be the more timely delivery of critical information, but in my case, the report isn't that important.

Would like to hear people's thoughts.

Thanks

Answer 1

Why don't you make a rule that the previous day report must be submitted by 9:30am the next day?

Those who want to write it after work on the day can do so, those who want to do it in the morning can also do so. As long as it's in by 9:30am it should be anyone's decision when they write it.

Simple :-)

Answer 2

I prefer end of day reports. The information from the day is fresh in peoples minds.

I might suggest having a beginning of the day reporting system because people who prefer end of day can write their report and submit it in the morning, and people who do prefer morning report writing can continue to write their reports in the morning.

Having a morning report also ensures that people who work flexibly (in the evening) can still send the full days report in by the deadline.

It seems to me that a morning report, with the option of writing (and maybe submitting) it any time, is the best option in the situation you described.

Answer 3

Could you please make it clear that you are the boss and will receive the reports (I think)?

My “answer” is bunch of questions – but I am not sure that you have thought this though, other than that “it might be a good idea” (no offence intended) .

• How much time will it take people to prepare these reports?
• How long will it take you to read, digest and act upon them?
• What is the purpose of them?
• What will you gain, that you don't have now?
• And how do you do it now? A chat or not at all?

To quote @Joe’s comment:

“but in my case, the report isn't that important." - then why bother with the report at all?

Unless you have a clear reason for why you want to do something – anything – in business, and what the costs and rewards are, it is inadvisable to do it.

You have lasted <however long> without daily reports. Why do you need them now? If you can explain that, and show a benefit, then you don’t need to ask us. If you can’t, then you don’t need the reports.

Answer 4

However, I think people will be quite resistant to the change, so I need a bit more ammo.

I take this to mean that people do end of day reports.

I'm not sure it matters, and certainly don't have data.

Since you asked for opinions I prefer a first thing in the morning report because when I have to do it at the end of the day, I have to stop early to write it... which breaks my flow.

The people that do the end of day reports now don't have to do anything different really.
They can still write the email, save it, and send in the morning.

Answer 5

There are a lot of considerations that could be made here including where the data is coming from and what it's ultimately being used for.

If the information for the report is being emailed/provided by the user directly then a morning report seems the most logical thing to do to allow for the most amount of time to receive the information from the sources providing it.

If the information is coming from some kind of central repository (e.g. you're interrogating a database to get this information back) then a morning report is definitely worth considering the following reasons:

• Creating a report that runs from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 each day is easy to justify as logical and would hopefully cover any out of hours work that is being done.
• Long term if you potentially wanted to automate this report, you could set up a batch job to do it first thing in the morning (1am) where's there's likely to be little demand on any computing resources used.

The only exception to this is if there's a need to see the data before the following morning. Would there be a management need to view this data at the end of the day or an out of hours period? Would it potentially impact a service or product if an issue isn't seen until the following morning? If so then an end-of-day report is definitely the best option.

Final thing to consider - it might be worthwhile asking the recipients of the report to see when they think it'd be best to receive it, after all they are the ones that'll be acting on the information being provided.